Argentina filed complaints on Wednesday with the World Trade Organisation charging the US with erecting trade barriers against its beef and lemons, and the European Union with protectionist measures against its biodiesel…….
A chemical container has exploded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, ( on Thursday ) blanketing the capital in a huge toxic cloud. Residents are being told to stay inside while a mass evacuation from the area surrounding the blast has been ordered, local media report………..
Argentina filed complaints on Wednesday with the World Trade Organisation charging the US with erecting trade barriers against its beef and lemons, and the European Union with protectionist measures against its biodiesel
Argentina said it is hurt by US trade measures purportedly intended to protect against hoof and mouth disease.
Buenos Aires defended the quality of its beef, which it said is produced at “extremely high sanitary standards,” adding that it exported more than $731 million of its beef around the world last year.
Similarly, Buenos Aires said its lemons are exported around the world, with trade totalling $172 million dollars last year, but that they also have encountered trade barriers in the United States.
Meanwhile Spain, a member of the EU, has unfairly restricted imports of Argentina’s biofuel, Buenos Aires claimed.
The Spanish government has limited the purchase of biofuel from Argentina to protest the decision by Buenos Aires earlier this year to seize the YPF oil concern from Spain’s Repsol.
When it took over YPF, Buenos Aires accused the Spanish oil giant of allowing oil and gas production to lapse and forcing Argentina’s oil import bill to rise.
“With annual exports to the EU of approximately $1.9 billion in 2011… this economic bloc is the main market for Argentine biodiesel,” the foreign ministry statement said.
YPF produces 34 percent of the oil and 25 percent of the natural gas in Argentina, according to industry figures.
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A chemical container has exploded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, blanketing the capital in a huge toxic cloud. Residents are being told to stay inside while a mass evacuation from the area surrounding the blast has been ordered, local media report.
The container filled with pesticide caught on fire after a chemical reaction between its contents and exploded. As the flames were put out, yellow smoke billowed out of it. City officials believe the container may have been transporting garbage.
“The pesticide presents a low level of danger and affects the respiratory tract,” said Sergio Berni, the national Security Secretary, as quoted by C5N television channel.
The incident hit the city’s Port Terminal 4 early in the morning. Several buildings in the port and the surrounding area were evacuated, according to Buenos Aires’s Civil Defense. Residents in near-by areas were told to stay indoors, close their windows and turn off air conditioning.
By 9:00am local time a strange heavy odor, described as similar to burnt oil or a gas leak, hit the city causing some metro lines and the city’s domestic airport to suspend operations.
A public health and security emergency has been declared by the country’s Security Ministry in the wake of the incident, reports Buenos Aires Herald. The ministry urged the public to call 107 in the event of any intoxication symptoms.